Airtel, Karbonn Take On JioPhone: Launches Karbonn A40 Indian At Rs 1,399

Airtel has tied up with Karbonn mobiles to introduce affordable 4G smartphone Karbonn A40 Indian. Priced at Rs 1,399, the phone will be available at offline stores across the country.

Recently, Jio launched its affordable feature phone in India at Rs 1,500 which will be refunded after 3 years. 

Now Jio's biggest rival Airtel in partnership with Karbonn mobiles has launched an affordable smartphone for which buyers will have to make a down payment of Rs 2,899 and make 36 continuous monthly recharges of Rs 169. The customer will get a cash refund of Rs 500 after 18 months and other Rs 1000 after 36 months, taking the total cash benefit to Rs 1500.

The 4G smartphone is bundled with a monthly pack of Rs 169 from Airtel, which offers data and calling benefits.

The customer needs to make a down payment of Rs 2,899 for the 4G smartphone and make 36 continuous monthly recharges of Rs 169. The customer will get a cash refund of Rs 500 after 18 months and other Rs 1000 after 36 months, taking the total cash benefit to Rs 1500.

Karbonn A40 Indian runs on Android 7.0 Nougat and powered by 1.3GHz quad-core processor coupled with 1GB RAM. It has 8GB internal storage which is expandable up to 32GB through a MicroSD card.

Karbonn A40 Indian features a 4-inch WVGA (800x480) display. It sports a 2-megapixels rear camera with flash, panorama mode, burst mode, and QR code scanner. On the front is a 0.3-megapixel selfie-camera.

 The dual-SIM smartphone is backed by a 1400mAh battery which gives talktime of up to 4 hours and gets charged in 3 hours time. The handset measures 122.95 x 64.3 x 10.5mm and weighs 118 grams.

Connectivity options are - Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, Micro USB, 3.5mm audio-jack, and 4G LTE. The handset comes in four colours- blue, coffee brown, black, and champagne.

In case the customer does not wish to opt for the Rs 169 bundled plan, she/he has the flexibility of doing recharges of any denomination and validity as per individual requirements. However, to claim the cash refund benefit, recharges worth Rs 3000 must be done within the first 18 months (to claim the first refund installment of Rs 500) and other Rs 3000 over the next 18 months (to claim the second refund installment of Rs 1000).

Pardeep Jain, Managing Director, Karbonn Mobiles said, “The real strength of our consumer base being an Indian smartphone brand is towards empowering every Indian with smart telephony and through this association we want to bring to our customers full blown smartphone experience at a price of just Rs 1399. The core of our business has always been simplified technology and we are more than delighted to expand our network with such associations”

Raj Pudipeddi, Director – Consumer Business & CMO, Bharti Airtel said, “We are delighted to partner with Karbonn to remove barriers to smartphone adoption and enable millions of Indians to leapfrog to a full touchscreen smartphone experience. We plan to partner with multiple manufacturers to bring affordable smartphone options to the market and build an ‘open ecosystem’ of low cost devices. This is yet another step in our ongoing journey to deeply understand customers and bring innovation that delights them.”